Bolte finds several instances where the
full formula still exists in popular tradition. It is surely easiest
to assume that they were once brought together by a folk artist whose
bright little tale has spread among various folks, with the
alterations suggested by the divergent fancy of the different folk
minds.

XXIII. CLEVER LASS

The Clever Lass is of exceptional interest to the student of the
Folk-Tale because of its exceptionally wide spread throughout Europe
and Asia, and also because it is one of those tales which have been
made the basis of the theory of the Eastern origin of all Folk-Tales.
Bolte, in his elaborate monograph on the formula ("_Anmerkungen_,"
ii., 349-73), enumerates no less than eighty-six variants, twelve in
Germany, six in other Teutonic lands, thirteen in Romance countries,
no less than thirty-seven in Slavonic dialects, seven in Finnish,
Hungarian and Tartar, six in the Semitic tongues, and also five in
India, though there the parallelism is only partial. But in the
European variants the parallels are so close and the riddles answered
by the Clever Lass are in so many cases identical, and the order of
incidents is so uniform that none can doubt the practical identity of
the story throughout the Western area. There occurs some variation in
the opening which, at times, takes the form of the father of the
Clever Girl finding a golden mortar and giving it to the King, against
the advice of his daughter who foresees that the monarch will demand
the accompanying pestle. This seems however to be confined to the
Teutonic lands or those in immediate cultural connection with them.
The riddles about strongest, richest, most beautiful, form the opening
elsewhere, and I have therefore chosen this alternative. The
variations, both in questions and answers, are many, as is perhaps
natural considering the popularity of the riddle in the folk mind,
which would make it easy for a story-teller to make changes.

The King or Prince, in some of the variants, discovers the cleverness
of the farmer's daughter on a visit to the farmer, when he elaborately
carves and divides a chicken on a method which the Clever Lass
discerns. This however does not occur so frequently except in Italy,
and I have therefore omitted it. The discovery of the theft by the
King's messenger is much more widely spread. (See Crane, 382, and
compare "Gobborn Seer," in _More English Fairy Tales_.)

The Grimms, in their notes, point to a